4 Ways to Know if Therapy is Working

The mental health profession is an unusual field to work in. Unlike my prior career as a mechanical engineer, professional counseling is more of a soft science where successful treatment cannot easily be quantified. Every individual client has a unique set of circumstances and past experiences that have resulted in their current state of being. Thankfully, there are common patterns present throughout the therapeutic process that can help measure a client’s gradual progress in reaching their goals. Below are four ways how to know therapy is working for you.

1. Decreased Symptoms

The most obvious measurement of counseling success is the client experiencing a decrease in symptoms that initially led them to seek help in the first place. That breakup that seemed unbearable a few months ago no longer feels like the end of the world. Or perhaps it’s become easier to get up in the morning and go to work.

Maybe you are feeling less anxious about your dating life and no longer need constant reassurance from your boyfriend that he’s still attracted to you. When feelings of pain, fear, boredom, disgust, and frustration aren’t as overbearing as they once were, it’s a good sign that therapy is working. 

2. Heightened Emotional Awareness

Have you ever seen a blurry image come into focus? What once seemed obscure gradually became easier to identify as the picture sharpened. Professional counseling has a similar effect on clients. Before starting therapy, you might have had a gut feeling that something did not quite feel right, but you couldn’t identify what was wrong.

However, after some time working with your therapist, it became apparent that people were pushing your emotional boundaries and taking advantage of you. New insights into relationship dynamics may lead to you setting boundaries in toxic relationships and gravitating to people who care about you and want you to succeed.

For many people, part of the process of healing is the ability to be aware of not just their emotions but also their thoughts. This is because our thoughts often drive our emotions. For example, persistent negative thoughts may often lead to anxiety.

Being aware of our thoughts and emotions becomes the first step in gaining control of what is going on in our minds. We no longer have negative or catastrophic thoughts running on autopilot in our minds, and feeding negative emotions. Instead, we can get to a point where we can examine each thought as it comes to our mind and consciously accept or reject it.

3. Recurring Positive Behaviors

The Japanese word “kaizen” means “gradual and continuous improvement.” Counseling education is primarily about helping clients learn how to take charge of their lives and advance to a higher state of being. Many times, when I begin working with new clients, they often tell me that they are defeated and lost. They say that they feel exhausted and numb, and are resigned to living an empty and meaningless life.

And yet through our work together many of them transition away from giving up and shift towards taking charge and creating the lives that they want to live. Signing up for interesting classes, meeting new people, traveling the world, etc. are positive behavioral signs that therapy is helping you get to where you want to be.

4. Being in the Present

Many emotional problems are often rooted in our inability to live in the present moment. For example, people who struggle with negative emotions such as worry or guilt often find themselves dwelling on a past that fills them with guilt or regret, or a future that fills them with anxiety.

However, being in the present is the most powerful way of dealing with these problems because it allows you to examine your thoughts and act on them. When therapy is working, patients will often find themselves being in the present for longer periods and acting on their thoughts in the present rather than worrying about an unclear future.

How to Get to Where You Want to Be

It’s important to remember that clients can and should routinely ask their therapist how their counseling treatment is progressing. Professional therapy such as at Coltharp Counseling is an investment of time and energy, and clients should feel comfortable in their working relationship with their counselors.

Therapy also provides an objective way of looking at the issues you are struggling with as it often offers advice and help that is not clouded by guilt, worry, or fear. These factors often cloud our judgment and make it very difficult to find solutions that deal with the core concerns. Professional therapists are trained to walk with you on the journey and give you the tools that you need to deal with life issues.

My primary goal in working with every one of my clients is to create a safe and engaging therapeutic environment purposefully designed to help you reach your goals.

Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if I’m the right therapist for you.

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